Crazy Friday

Yesterday was pretty crazy, and not all that fun. It started out at the dentists’s office (not a great way to start an afternoon). I had already had to go in the week before, because I was having some serious mouth problems. I had two odd lines on the side of my tongue, my jaws ached, I felt pressure and tightness in my face, I had some pretty awful headaches, and my neck was stiff. Basically, when I had a headaches and aching jaws at the same time I felt like I’d just gotten out of a particularly cruel boxing match. My mom had been pretty sure of what my problem was all along, but like the hypochondriac I am, I had to get a professional’s word for it. The dentist told me I had TMJ. No surprise there. Then the surprise came. I had gotten this condition because when my orthodontist put braces on me he completely went wrong. He had "fixed" my problem by forcing my upper jaw backward. The real problem had been that my lower jaw had been behind. Thus, the orthodontist never should have pushed my front jaw back in the first place. It had been doing its job correctly, minding its own business. Plus I never should have had two teeth extracted. So, for the price of having a perfectly straight smile, I now am stuck with a screwed up mouth and all kinds of problems. Thanks a lot ortho.....

In case you were wondering, this dentist is not your average conventional dentist. He’s a biological dentist (and a certified orthodontist as well) that doesn’t push x-rays down your throat every two seconds, won’t use mercury or other toxic metals to fill cavities with, doesn’t push fluroide treatments, etc. Anyways, back to the topic at hand. When I first heard this I was pretty dang shocked, and then I got pretty dang mad. I mean who wants to have a messed up mouth for the rest of their natural life? Plus, did that mean I went through all that horrible pain with braces for nothing?! The good news is that the dentist said I could get a special mouth guard to sleep in at night that would relax my jaw, thus allowing me to function like a normal individual. So yesterday I got the impression for the mouth guard, which I should be getting next Friday. All I can say is, that it had better work or else I’m going to get very very upset (and you know what happens when I get very very upset ;) ).

After the dentist yesterday, we had to go over the hospital to see my grandma, who had to go there late Wednesday night. For those of you who don’t know, she’s battling breast cancer, and was supposed to have a routine procedure Wednesday to get rid of some fluid on her lungs. However, the procedure didn’t go as planned. She started coughing up blood and got very breathless. Thursday, they got some blood clots off of her lungs, but she is still in pretty bad shape. She is extremely weak, can hardly eat or talk because she is so breathless, and just really needs your prayers right now. As far as I know, she’ll be staying in the hospital for the rest of the weekend, and I have no idea when she’ll be going home. I’ll keep you updated....